We’ve been waiting years for Stranger Things season 4 to turn our lives upside down, and it looks like our wish has been granted. The full trailer for the hit sci-fi series teases exactly what’s in store for the gang, who are now all-grown-up and preparing to enter high school, as we approach the release of the new season on the streaming service Netflix.
Fittingly, the trailer samples Journey’s ‘Separate Ways (Worlds Apart),’ with Eleven and the Byers family adjusting to life in California, while Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Max remain back in Hawkins. We see Max telling the grave of brother Billy that things have been a “total disaster” since the events of season 3, which saw Eleven and the Byers turn their back on Hawkins (and, they hope, the Upside Down) for good, after Hopper’s tragic death.
But as we know, Hopper is, in fact, not dead. As hinted in season 3’s post-credit scene, he is alive and well in the trailer. It looks like he is being imprisoned by Russian soldiers and being forced to fight Demogorgons. Towards the end of the trailer, we see him looking pretty worried as he comes face-to-face with what appears to be a humanoid, more sentient Demogorgen who has the ability to speak.
But he’s not the only one in trouble. Eleven is told in the trailer: “A war is coming. Your friends in Hawkins are very much in the eye of a storm. I don’t know how else to say this. Without you, we can’t win this war.”
We then see a mixture of flashbacks from Eleven’s time being experimented on, a sinister Grandfather clock, and Max spotting something mysterious at the high school before later appearing to levitate. As the TV series trailer hints at the usual Upside Down madness, with portals and supernatural creatures, we see Steve and Nancy seemingly getting prepared for more action, with Steve telling her: “See you on the other side.”
The trailer ends with title cards saying: “Every end has a beginning.” And this looks like one hell of a beginning.
The first volume of Stranger Things season 4 will come to Netflix on May 27, 2022, while the rest of the season will come July 1, 2022. You can watch the past three seasons of the Netflix series on the streaming service now.